The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and six other Government agencies for non-compliance with mandatory rainwater harvesting norm on its stations in Delhi and NCR towns.
Being concerned with depletion of groundwater in National Capital Region and Delhi — including Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Greater Noida, environmentalist Vikrant Tongad approached National Green Tribunal to order Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ltd. (DMRC) to install rainwater harvesting system at its all existing stations and depots in Delhi and NCR. On its first hearing on April 11, 2013, the NGT issued notices to seven respondents to file their replies on May 6, 2013.
The petition states that the average roof top area of one metro station comes approximately to 1,000 Sq. Mt. There are about 106 stations where roof top water harvesting facility can be installed in the Metro Stations. If the rainwater harvesting system installed properly on the Metro stations then at least 1.96 crore litres of water could be saved per year.
In almost all the places it was found that the water accumulating on the roof top of the stations or accumulating on the tracks is either going into drain or in open area through down pipe and are not being harvested. According to rain water harvesting provisions the water could have been stored in the underground tank for use or could have been used for recharge of ground water after proper treatment through soak pits. DMRC informed that no roof top rain water harvesting system is in existence in Noida stations.
That another area of concern is that the Metro Rail depots are constructed at Khyber Pass, Najafgarh, Sarita Vihar, Sultanpur, Shastri Park, Yamuna Bank and Mundka. However, DMRC has installed the rainwater harvesting system only at Sultanpur depot.
It is therefore necessary to implement measures to make sure that rainwater falling over a region is tapped to the maximum possible extend through rainwater harvesting and conservation, either by recharging it into groundwater resources or storing it for direct use because CGWA has issued direction under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to the Chief Secretaries of the States to adopt rainwater harvesting in all over exploited/critical blocks/talukas of the State.
The applicant has prayed tribunal to pass an order to install proper rainwater harvesting system on all its existing station, tracks and depot in National Capital Region (NCR) and National Capital Territory (NCT).